Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1893 — Page 5

REFORM THE TARIFF.

THIS SHOULD BE DONE WITHOUT DELAY. Lighter Burdens for the People, Wider Markets and Greater Freedom Is Demanded—Tom Reed’s Stupid Bluff—Mutual Foolishness Between Two Countries. Let Reform Be Prompt. The well-selected adage with which President Cleveland closed his appeal to Congress when he called it in extra session to wipe out the mischievous sil-ver-purchase law applies equally to the work of tariff reform which awaits action at the regular session. He gives twice who gives quickly is especially true when the thing given is a change in legislation affecting the business of the country. The tariff certainly does that We have little patience with the view that the only business affected by the tariff is that of favored manufacturers, and still less with the view that the sole effect upon such business is favorable. On the contrary, the tariff as it stands to-day affects, and for the most part injuriously, nearly every kind of business in the United States, from that of the manufacturer to that of the farmer; from the foreign shipper to the retail dealer; from the largest to the least of active interests; from the income of the millionaire to the wages of the workman. The people have decided with great deliberation and by repeated votes that the tariff shall be reformed and reduced. That was practically the decision in 1888, when the Republicans won enough votes to elect Mr. Harrison by the promises of reform afterward repudiated. It was distinctly the decision in 1890, when the House that passed the McKinley bill was turned out. It was still more distinctly the decision in 1892, when absolutely the only national issue of any importance between the parties was that of the tariff. The people, therefore, demand the reform of the tariff. They will have it, and they should have it with as little delay as is consistent with a well-oonsidered measure. Uncertainty of any kind is hurtful to business in proportion to the extent of the interests involved and the intensity and duration of the uncertainty. We are not inclined to underestimate the importance of the character of the bill to be passed this winter, but any difference between bills that have any chance of passing at all is insignificant compared with the importance of prompt action and the earliest possible dissipation of all doubt upon the subject. We see a great deal in the protectionist journals as to the evil of men not knowing what they have to fear. There is something in that, but not much. There is no considerable number of sound industries in the United States that have anything whatever to fear from an honest and judicious reduction of the tariff. What is really of very much more importance is that that the whole business community shall know what they have to hope for, and it is to satisfy this perfectly rational and just requirement, as well as to allay any apprehension on the part of the uninformed and to silence the partisan alarmists, that action on the reform bill should be pushed with energy and decision. There is no occasion for hesitation on account of the recent elections. The pretense that they were a protest against tariff reform is ridiculously unfounded. Not one man in a thousand who failed to vote the Democratic ticket had any idea about the tariff in his mind. The party in power not only can go on and carry out the mandate of 1890 and 1892 in security, but it must do s«. It is bound in honor to do it; it is the only safe course, and it is sure to win the confidence of the people who gave the mandate. That mandate was for an honest, careful, and fair reduction of the tariff, such a revision as will lighten the burdens of the consumer, give to industry cheaper materials and to our commerce the stimulus of wider markets, to our working people an increased demand for labor and a lower cost of living, and to the whole country an invigorating influence of greater freedom. A steady progress toward the goal (free trade) that Garfield set for his party, and which, that party losing sight of it, the people now seek through the Democracy.—Now York Times. j

A Very Stupid Bluff:

Tom Reed ought to have learned that this is too big a country for even his monumental impudence to frighten with a bluff. When Mr. Reed says that the Democratic party “dare not disturb the tariff, ” in view of the late elections, he says in effect that it dare not execute its commission from the people—dare not fulfill its twenty-times-repeated pledge, now that it for the first time has the power. As we said yesterday, the Democratic party dare not fail to reform the tariff. Nor has it any disposition to shirk its duty. Mr. Reed has developed a wonderful respect for the will of the people since he crowded a force bill through the House after his party had been rebuked and defeated by 1,300,000 majority in Congressional elections in which its record was the direct issue. The tariff was not and could not have been an issue in the elections of Tuesday. The Republicans in Ohio, Massachusetts and lowa used it as a scarecrow, as usual. But in the last two States the Republican plurality was but litte in excess of Harrison’s. The only congressman elected anywhere was a Democrat in Michigan. The Democrats lose no legislature that will elect a senator. Nowhere was there a vote cast that can by any possibility affect the reform of the tariff which the present congress and administration were elected to carry out. The fight was over, that issue was closed last year. By a majority of 1,332,000 in 1890 and over 1,400,000 in 1892, directly upon this as the main issue of the elections, the people decided in favor of tariff reform through tariff reduction. It is imputing childishness or worse to the people to suppose that they were frightened from their deliberate purposo before the bill which they had twice demanded was even drafted. The election of Republican State officers in half a dozen States did not reverse the verdict of the nation. Tariff reform is needed. It has been decreed. It has been promised. It must come. It is coming.—New York World. Jerry Simpson's Views. Speaking of the Republican landslide in the East, Congressman Jerry Simpson, of Kansas, said to a Kansas City Journal man: It was simply the result of a scare among the masses., There are a lot of lunatics In the oonntry who know nothing themselves and were made to believe by the Republican press that the threatened revision of the tariff portended evil to the working classes. Besides this, they blame the Democratic party for the existing business depression, which as a matter of fact, is a result of Iniquitous Republican legislation. The common people are like a man on a raft of saw logs. As one log sinks he jumps to another, hoping to keep himself afloat. They will finally get on the People’s party log, which is big enough to support them, in New Turk the attempt of the machine poll icians to force Maynard upon the people was responsible for the result. McKinley’s election makes him the logical ReSbllcan candidate for President in 1896. The iff question will be the iosue again. We

thought we had settled that question last rear, but President Cleveland shoved It to the rear, and now It has got to be fought over again with the money question, an equally important issue. Now for Tariff Reform! Now let Congress take a whack at the upas tree of tariff oppression.— Nashville American. The country will not treat the McKinley bill with as much gentleness as the people of Ohio have treated McKinley.—Boston Globe. It now behooves Mr. Cleveland to see that McKinley’s tariff law is wiped off the statute books of this nation without undue delay.—Chicago Times. It is now expected that the new tariff bill will be ready in about three weeks from date. No postponement on account of the elections. —Boston Herald. The Democratic administration and Congress cannot let the tariff alone. They are bound by the pledges and by the whole logic oi their position to enter upon the work of revision.—Philadelpnia Press. While the tariff will be revised with a view to lessening the burden of taxation, especially upon materials of manufacture, this policy does not contemplate a reduction of the customs revenue, but rather a more equable distribution.—Philadelphia Times. The next thing in order is to reform the tariff. This should be done at once and vigorously. Let the tariff be reformed and the financial system remain untampered with, and the wait for the return of good times will not be a prolonged one.—lndianapolis Sentinel.

Certainly no evidence is offered by the late elections that the people have repented of their desire, recorded twice over at the polls, first in 1890 and again in 1892, for a moderate and conservative reform of the worse-than-war tariff rates imposed by the McKinley act.—Baltimore Sun. The demand for the reform and revision of the tariff is as strong as it was when the people of the country made it at the ballot-box in November, 1892; and there is no more excuse now than there was then for any failure on the part of the democracy to heed the voice of the people. Detroit Free Press.

The Rights of Hawaii.

The letter of Secretary Gresham dealing with the status of affairs between this country and Hawaii, is one that will be read with interest by all who have followed the course of events since the annexationists on the island asserted themselves and established a provisional government which secured the hasty recognition of the United States. The state document which the Secretary has made public is a full and candid review of the case from its inception, and, if correct in its details, is certainly correct in the conclusion that the independence of the Hawaiian Gov-i ernment should be restored, and that with this performance of a plain duty interference on the part of the United States should cease. The fact that Minister Stevens exceeded his authority and committed this Government to an act of gross and cowardly injustice is positively asserted, while the mar rines from the United States ship Boston gave aid, comfort and success to the revolutionists under the pretense of protecting the life and property of American citizens in Honolulu. This showing accounts for several facts that were at the time of their occurrence a matter of general discussion. It will now be understood why the commissioners of the provisional government and the representatives of Queen Liliuokalani raced across the continent, each seeking to first gain* the ear of Secretary Poster with the hope of securing favorable action on the part of the United States. It explains the hauling down of the American flag by Minister Blount when he reached Honolulu and there learned the true condition of affairs, but it does not make clear why Minister Stevens played the part of a usurper and made false representations to his government, afterwards admitting that they were false. Neither does it account for the undue haste with which the Harrison administration seized upon the opportunity for annexation and gave one of the most marked illustrar tions of jingoism in the whole history of the nation. —Detroit Free Press.

They Make No Mistake.

The New; Bedford Journal (Rep.) a3ka who is responsible for the present tariff uncertainty, and goes on to reply by asking more questions and answering them, as follows, “Who is responsible for the election of Grover Cleveland and a Congress pledged to tariff reform?” Are the American people fools? Did they twice over rebuke the administration of Benjamin Harrison without cause? Did they make these rebukes the severest in their history simply from caprice? No, indeed. The American people are not fools. They rebuked the Republican party because, among other things, they promised to revise the tariff down and revised it up; because they promised a tariff in the interest of all the people and gave a tariff in the interest of sections, classes, and individuals; because they gave a tariff conceived in the thraldom of party necessity and consummated at the bid of campaign contributors, a tariff which was the product of politics first and only of patriotism when politics permitted.

Mutual Foolishness. The Canadians bought last year 831,046 tons of soft coal mined in the United States, and they sold in the United States 680,388 tons mined in Canada. Both countries, in foolish disregard of the public interest, have imposed duties on imports of coal; and both countries would profit about equally by a repeal of the duties. The natural market for the coal mined in Eastern Canada is in the New England States. The soft coal mined in Ohio and Pennsylvania, because of its superior accessibility, forms the best source of supply for that part of Canada which can be reached by lake transportation. No doubt the repeal of the coal duty by the United States would be followed by reciprocal action on the part of the Canadian Government.—Philadelphia Record.

Honest, Impartial, Radical Reduction. Discussing tariff reform the Indianapolis News (Ind.) says: “Perhaps it may be impossible to .come to a purely revenue tariff all at once, but there should be no change in the existing law which does not tend directly and strongly that way. The principle should not be compromised. No step shold be taken which it will be necessary to retract. Local interests should have no weight. Mr. Gorman’s coal must go upon the free list. Louisiana sugar and Vermont sugar must be treated alike, and both interests should be deprived of the bounty which Mr. McKinley gave them. Carolina rice and New York barley are both entitled to protection if either is. In a word, there must be no favoritism. The new law ought to be an honest measure, and not a device for catching votes.” How the Foreigner Fays It. “Be gob, the furriner does pay the tax,” said Pat as he saw his fellow shoveler, the macaroni eater, paying two cents more a pound for that compound than was the price before the McKinley law.

FASHIONS IN FURS.

MUFFS OF IMMENSE SIZE ARE TO BE WORN. Those Dreadful Whole " Beastlea " Which Wore So Popular as Tippets Last Winter Are to Again Bedeck the Recks of Women This Season. Gossip from Gay Gotham. Haw York correspondence:

URRIERS must be heartless men, for again this winter they plan to bedeck the throats of fair and gentle women with those dreadful whole “beasties* which were so popularas tippets last [winter. Tney are no longer little, but are so big now that one wonders how the women dare put them on. They come at all prices, too, from a cheap marten, which, alas! is really pussy cat, to Hudsod

sable. These last are deep-furred and soft and comprise the whole animal, two little paws dangling in front with the head and two at the back with the little tail, any one of them enough to make a woman cry for pity. But what has a woman to do with pity where furs are concerned? An odd feature of fashionable fur usage is that the amount of fur displayed in any one costume is wholly at the discretion of the wearer. Thus, a woman may be enveloped in a wrap that comes almost to the ground, ana cover her head with a hat liberally trimmed with the Bame pelt, or she may, as in the costume of the initial picture, let the only bit of fur in her make-up appear in a narrow band about the brim of her felt hat. In general, the latter method is, perhaps, more in accordance with current acceptances, but both are permissible. Tne garment which the fur-trimmed hat accompanies is a coat of red cheviot. It consists of a coat proper, which buttons invisibly in front, to which is at-

MUFFS ABOUT THIS SIZE.

tached a circular cape which leaves a yoke-like . portion of the coat exposed. This yoke is covered with black allover embroidery, which also appears on the collar. The latter is stiffened with crinoline and has a rolling edge. The lace cape i« one hundred and thirty-five inches wide and eighteen inches deep, and the seam that joins the lace and cloth cape to the coat is covered with a full ribbon ruching. Besides the edging of fur the hat, which is in a shade of paris green, has its low crown encircled by a velvet band, and two velvet points and a pale green bird’s head are placed in front. Tiehind these come two black and green changeable Mercury wings with a fanlike aigrette. A wearer whose choice is for more display of fur than can be put upon a hat is she of the second illustration. Her huge, handsome boa and the muff are of Russian seal, soft, fleecy and beautiful. Muffs are promised which shall so closely follow 1830 styles as'to be simply huge, but it is not likely that the early winter will see many suoh, although the wee cold things which paraded as muffs in the recent past will surely be abandoned. Sable remains the choicest fur next to ermine and is made up into handsome deep capes, with or without butterfly collars. There is a great difference in the price of sable, and almost a corresponding difference in length of fur and softness of texture and color. Sealskin always holds its place. This season it is darker and silkier than ever, and that means that it has been extraordinarily subjected to dyeing and scraping. That in turn means that your sealskin will hardly look well a season through. Therefore, if you really want a seal, you’d better have it made into a cape, because a cape gets less wear than does a coat, having no sleeves to rub, no outside pockets to wear and also escaping a good deal of wear in sitting down that a coat gets.

A COAT FUB-EDGED.

If, however, your only idea is to spend money and help your husband to weather the present “financial crisis” by wearing the best and so inspiring his creditors (all but the one who sold you the coat) with confidence, then have a sealskin frock coat. Let the skirts be very full, the sleeves very large at the shoulders, and the revers either faced with astrakhan or ermine. Anyone would know that the little girl of the next picture was new to her muff, for she is not content with holding it in its proper place, but must lift it to her eyes to admire its pretty shade

of tan, rub It against her chin to test Its softness and blow into it to satisfy herself of its thickness. Many times must the muff go through these approving processes, and many confiding smiles must it receive before it begins to age in its young wearer’s appreciation. The fur here is beaver, and a narrow edging of it is seen about the hem, fronts, cuffs and cape of the coat. Some would add a strip of it to the hat, bat all such matters are left to personal ohoice. The coat itself is of cloth, and lined with quilted pink satin, the fronts and back being pleated to a yoke. The back has a wide box pleat held in plaoe at the waist by a fancy braid strap, and the slashed collar is lined with plain silk. d. * Ermine is being used chiefly m combination with other furs, notably with seal. Very elegant frock ooats of dark

ANOTHER FURRED WRAP.

seal have vests let in of ermine, and the shoulder puff and collar of the same. An ermine muff, too, should be carried. Ermine also comes in sets consisting of the big old-time muff of our grandparents, a tippet also like the ones the old-time dames wore, and cuffs. Such a set is worn with a velvet or seal oloak. Ermine is also used to line opera cloaks, the outside being in delicate shades of soft silk or velvet. A regal cape of seal reaching generously below the hips is lined with ermine and can be worn either side out. the dark side outside for the street and the reverse for the theater. In the fourth sketch there is another fur trimmed wrap, worn with a boa and muff to match. In this model, a suitable one for young matrons, the material is black cloth made up without lining. The circular double collar consists of cloth on the lower, and gros grain on the upper 1 Bide, the upper collar coming down the fronts of the wrap and being trimmed with jet. This collar and the fitted fronts are garnished with the fur.

Astrakhan is to be much worn and the Persian comes very high. The hair is longer than ever and loosely curled. One wonders if the cultivators of furs have been dosing and rubbing their astrakhan animals all summer with hai r tonic stuffs. Astrakhan is made up in frock coats and capes and is to be much used for trimming cloth gowns. To meet the craze for “black and white" it is made up with ermine, but somehow it does not look just right, for the astrakhan seems too common for the ermine. Monkey is still used and is cheaper than it was last year, but it is most awfully ugly now as always, and after all not much nicer than its own frequent imitator, dyed goat fur. Marten, not unlike sable of the commoner quality, is a good stand-by fur and inexpensive. A fur lately introduced is called Janet, and is for lining long cloaks. It is soft, almost too soft to stand Well the wear that comes on a

AT ONCE A PROTECTION AND AN ORNAMENT.

lining, of a delicate brown color and not expensive. The novelty of this season is the little butterfly cape gotten up in sable, ermine, astrakhan or seal. It is made with a high flaring collar and is 60 full that it stands out In scallops which are so deep that the lining shows. These little affaire are made with great attention to detail, two or three kinds of fur being put into them often, as a seal one that has Vandykes of astrakhan about the edge and a lining of ermine, the tails set about the lower edge with K;he black tip projecting. These capes cost extravagently and there is little warmth to them. Tails are much used for trimming fur cloaks and dresses. Mink tails are set together and used for fringes and so are ermine tails. Of course, there are few good imitations of really fine and very costly sealskin, but one, the “cony" or Paris seal, comes pie-ty near it and is much cheaper. For seventy dollars a long cloak to the hips and a little below can bo bought which will look for all the world .like its four-hundred-dollar neighbor. The fur is the tame color, a shade deeper than the seal, perhaps, and lacking a bit in the flexibility of the seal, but to all practical purposes just as handsome as tho seat, and so near like it that it will fool any one but a woman who is attempting the deception herself. Besides, it will outlast the real article by two seasons. It would be hard to say whether the furred front of the plush jacket in the final picture is more for ornament or for protection. It has such a fragmentary appearance that at first glance it would seem worthless as a security against the cold, but it still is a protection for the chest, while being a decided addition to the jacket’s appearance. That garment is made of black plush, is thinly wadded and lined with black satin merveilleux. The fur is Persian lamb. Copyright. 1893.

The Farm.

The farm is one continuous experiment station. A large measure of the success reached by any farmer is due to the knowledge gained from this experimentation.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

In Texas they are debatipg whether farmers would not better live in villages, as they do in Germany and Switzerland, driving out to their fields roundabout This would relieve the monotony of farm life. An article on the presence of gold in the Appalachian region of Maryland, which was recently printed in a Baltimore paper, recalled to a lawyer of that city the fact that the United States Supreme Court has decided that all deposits of gold and silver in Maryland belong to the State and not to the owner of the land in which they lie.

Thb American railroad contractor is a cosmopolitan. He builds railroads in Mexico, Central America, South America, China, Japan, Siam and in many other lands. His last contract is for a road from Haifa, in Syria, to Damascus. The line is to be completed within eighteen months, and the Intention is to extend it through Persia to India as soon as the necessary concessions are obtained. Some idea of the enormous proportions the business of hotelkeeping has assumed in this country may be gained . from tho fact that there are in the United States upwards of 50,000 hotels, exclusive of wnat may be properly termed inns and taverns and what are oommonly known as apartment houses, although the latter are as hotels, in that they have a common kitohen and dining-room. The Welsh in the United States claim that they are in numbers as many as their countrymen in Wales, and they also claim that one of their ancestors forestalled Columbus in the discovery of America by 272 years. They base their assertion on historical traditions, and the manuscripts of old Welsh bards on the one hand, and on the prevalence of Welsh in many of the languages of the Indians, both of South and North America, on the other.

Very few people know anything about the Indians in Western North Carolina—the Cherokees. There are 1.200 of them and they are increasing in numbers. They own 75,000 acres of land, and very fine land it is. Their chief is Stillwell Sounooke. He eannot speak English at at all. There are some native preachers and four sohools, the Government maintaining the latter. There are other Cherokees but these are not inoluded in the 1,200, as they live elsewhere than on the reservation. The Cherokee Strip opening brought strange experiences of boom heights and collapse depths to the border town of Arkansas City, Kansas. Prior to the opening it was the great centre for the boomers and for their supplies; the evening of the opening day it was almost a deserted village. During the few weeks preceding the opening the postoffice did a volume of business entitling it to rank as a first-class postofflee. Since the opening it has done more business with the Dead Lstter Office than any other city in the Union. More than 15,01>0 letters were returned to Washington within a few days after the opening. It speaks graphically of the wild rusn for tne unknown taken by the boomers that any effort to deliver these thousands of letters to the people who a few hours before were within reach was utterly useless.

British naval authorities are congratulating one another over the rocent showing made by the British cruiser Melpomene in steaming from Callao to Victoria, a distance of over 5,000 miles, in twenty-two days, without making a stop for ooal. It is said this is an achievement which has seldom been paralleled and never surpassed. The Melpomene is a stoel cruiser of 2,950 tons displacement. Her principal features are: Length, 265 feet, beam, 41 feet, and draught, 17 feet 6 inches. She is capable of attaining a speed of 19.75 knots an hour. Her bunkers have a capacity for 400 tons of coal. It is said she can steam 8,000 miles at a speed of 10 knots an hour. In general features the Melpomeno approaches close to the new United States cruisers Cincinnati and Kaleigh. She is less poworful, however, than either. Some idea of the abundanoo of game, big and little, in the wildernesses of the Northwestern mountain ranges may be gathered from the record of a season’s untlng, for business, in the Cascade Mountains about Mount Hood, by W. G. Clark, a noted trapper, who used one time to hunt with Buffalo Bill. He £ itched his camp on the south side of iount Hood just about snowfall last year, and was in exile for six or eight months. Part of the time the snow was twenty feet deep. In little more than a month he killed 120 elk and over 200 deer, sending tho meat down to Portland by a packer. When the snow got too deep for hunting he took to his traps, and when summerjmt in returned to civilization with 12,000 worth of mink, lion, sable, marten, fox and other skins, including several silver-gray fox skins, which are worth SSO each. Altogether he cleared about $3,000 by his season’s hunting. He got no bears, for though there are plenty of them in the mounttains, they are holed up in the winter. There has been a great influx of idle men into San Francisco and other towns on the Pacific coast duriug the past few weeks, and the questiou of what to do for them or with them has become very prominent and serious. Most of them are tramps of the ordinary, disreputable species, but there are also many honest workmen out of employment among the army that has besieged the ooast. These men have been eoming into California, beating their way on freight and passenger trains, sometimes fifty to a hundred in a single company. They have captured freight trains, and the railroad companies have notified the freight conductors to permit them to ride, because the gaDgs are so numerous they can cause serious trouble, and have done so where transportation was refused. The genuine • ‘hoboes” have beoome so bold that they ride on the platforms of the oars of the fast expresses, and the trainmen dare not attempt to dislodge them. The railroad companies have appealed to the authorities in nearly every town to do their duty and arrest the tramps, but the officials have declined to assume the charge of half a hundred healthy loafers, to be kept and fed. The loafers and crooks are making for San Francisoo probably with a view to preying on the visitors to the big midwinter fair. The honest unemployed are more scattered, but’ a week ago San Francisco had 514 of the latter, all white men, quartered at the city’s expense in a relief camp. Startling are the official statistics that have just been published in Germany concerning the number of suicides in various armies of the old world, and they are regarded by the Omaha Bee as a striking illustration of the unpopularity of obligatory military service. It seems that in Austria the average rate for the year is 131 per 100,000 men. The French come next, with ninety-two suicides per annum for each 100,000 men. The German government gives its rate at sixty-eight, but these figures are generally believed to be below the actual Dumber, as the impression prevails in

military circles throughout Europe tht the suicides ia the German are more frequent even than in that of Austria. Italy’s quota is given at forty-five, while that of Russia does not exceed twenty, a figure that is obviously far below the truth. Belgium gives its rate at twentyfour, Spain at fourteen, and England at twenty-three, most of the suicides in the British army occurring out in India. A remarkable fact is that, notwithstanding the majority of suicides are popularly believed to be attributable to tyranny on the part of the officers, yet it is precisely among the officers that the largest number of self-inflicted viotims is to be found. Tho favorite method of suicide is by shooting, either with a rifle or a revolver. Next comes drowning, and after that hanging, while of late a large number of offioers and men have taken their lives by throwing themselves in front of railway trains. It has also been noted that, whereas the smallest number of suicides takes place in the winter, the largest number occurs in the broiling hot months of July and August.

Alcohol in Chicken Raising.

“ Yes, sir, 1 can raise chickens three days quicker by planting the eggs than can be done in the regular way,” said an man who officiates as gardener for a prominent iron manufacturer on Fifth avenue, East End. It seems strange but chickens are about tho only things that man is able to grow. The usual things produced in a garden languish and fail under his direction, but ohiokens thrive. “ You see, I brought this idea over with me from the old country. I place the eggs in a box with a little fertilizer, then plant the box about four or five inches below the surface.” “ Well, some oue told me you indulged in an incantation over the box,” said the reporter. “ Not at all; I just put a little vinegar over it, nothing else,” was the gardener’s reply. " You don’t understand me. I mean that you use somo charm or other.” “Oh, qo! The only rule you must follow is not to open the box except between the going down and the coming up of the sun,” was the way the gardener answered. “Then there is some mystery about it, after all?” was asked. “No, you must keep the box dry,” replied the old chicken farmer. The reporter gave up further questioning as futile, and permitted the gardener to tell his story without interruption. “Well, you see, I let the box remain under the ground for a period equal to that requin d for a hen to hatch out eggs, less three days, then open the box in the evening. Then I find I have my chickens all hatched out. lam met here with a difficulty. If I try to put the young chickens with a hen to raise she will peck at them until she kills them. It is too much trouble to oure for them myself, so I have to play a trick. I taka a chiokeu that is not laying well and make her drunk. Ido this by giving her whiskey, and soon she begins to stagger around until at last in a drunken stupor she lies down. I take her, aud, fixing her carefully in a box I have already prepared, place the chicks under hor. By morniug the effects of the alcohol have worn off and the hen is going around the yard clucking to her young brood in the proudest manner. She imagines that she has been sittinn upon the eggs and this is the result of her patience. I have tried this a number of times and the experiment has never failed.’’—[Pittsburg Dispatch.

Wind Power.

An interesting note in tho Electrloian on wind power says that some years ago an attempt was made, under the auspices of the Due de Feltre and M. I. Vigreux, to drive the dynamos at the Pointe do la Heve lighthouse by wind power. The wind, however, as is its oustom, blew when and where it listed, and ended one fine, or rather one stormy, day by overthrowing the ungainly apparatus installed on the exposed headland. M. Max de Nansouty, in alluding to this attempt to harness the wind, suggests that the next time a similar attempt is made it would be as well to try the effect of surroundiug the “atmospheric turbines” bf strong towers, ana directing the wind onto the vanes by nozzles in much the same way as tho water is directed onto the buckets of a Pelton wheel. This Idea of “canalising” air currents is, it is said, actually engaging the attention of windmill experts.

She Hit the Can.

A terrible explosion occurred in Chiles valley, on the Thomas Edington ranch, near the magnesia mine. Mrs. Bartlett, whose husband owns the mine, was out with a 22 calibre rifle shooting at fences and rocks, when she noticed a can some fifty yards away. Taking aim, she fired at it, and a big explosion resulted. The can did not happen to be an empty one. It contained twenty-five pounds of giant powder. By its explosion fences were torn down and posts razed to the ground. The shock broke all the windows in the windows in the house, tore off the weather boarding and threw Bartlett and William Bradley who were kitchen, in a heap upon the floor. Luckily Mrs. Bartlett, the innocent cause of all this commotion, was not injured, but the scene of the upheaval now presents a most demoralized appearance. [Napa (Cal.) Register.

Paper Houses.

The adaptability of paper is regarded as likely to lead to a solution of the problem of rendering dwellings and business structures fire-proof. It is now found that paper can be made perfectly fire-proof while remaining amenable to the same treatment in the matter of color polishing and handling as most woods. Such a material offers all of tha advantages as an ideal substance for floors, and it can be used equally well for the walls of buildings. Besides this it can be used in the finish and furniture of houses and would unquestionably do much to reduce the peril of fire, against which insufficient provision is but too often taken.

Canned Fruit

This industry, which has attained such extensive proportions, owes its existance to an accident. The process was known to the inhabitants of Pompeii, but had long been forgotten. Some years ago a party of Americans happened to be present at some excavations in that city when some jars of preserved figs wero found. Investigation showed that the figs had been put into the jars in a heated state, an opening left for the steam to escape and then sealed with the wax. The hint was taken, and the following year fruit-canning was introduced in the United States after the manner practiced in Pompeii two thousand years before.

TRIAL BY ORDEAL.

A Remarkable Story From India About Catching a Thief. The Times of India publishes a good story of trial by ordeal. The narrator of it some years ago had charge of a postal division on the western coast, parts of whioh had seldom, if ever, been visited by a European officer. The people were for the most part simple folk and very superstitious. One morning the narrator received information that a considerable sum of money, forming part of the contents of the mail from a head to a soboffice, had been stolen on the road. The whole affair was wrapped in mystery. The only clew the polioe had been able to obtain was that one rnnner, whom we shall call Rama, had since the theft paid off certain debts in the village which had long pressed upon him; but there were no other suspicious circumstances, and the man had ten years good service. As a last resource it was determined to resort to trial by ordeal, and for this purpose an aged Brahmin, who was supposed to possess occult powers and to be in daily communion with the gods, was consulted, and readily undertook to discover the thief. All the runners, & goodly array of sturdy Mahratta peasants, were summoned to the office, and under the guidance of a cheyla or disciple of the old Brahmin, we all proceeded to a small deserted temple of Mahadeo, situated at some distauce from the village. It was a desolate spot, and bore an evil reputation. The temple, owing to some act of desecration in the paat, had been abandoned, and waa almost buried among weeds and tangled brushwood.

The hour seleoted was about 6 p. m. r and the long twilight shadows gave theplace a weird, uncanny look. The old Brahmin was awaiting us, and, as we approached, appeared to bo busy muttering incantations. Tho runners all seemed to be more or less under the spell of the hour, but the look of real fright on Rama’s face was quite distinct. The Brahmin, having finished his incantations, arose, and, addressing the men, eaid: “You are about to face the gods; to the innocent the trial will be nothing, but to the guilty much. In the temple a magic wand has boon placed on the altar. Each of you must go in by turn*, take up the wand and turn round three times, repeating the name of Mahadeo; the wand will stick to the hand of tho guilty one.” By this time it was nearly dark. I glanced in through the door of tho temple. A solitary oil buttee threw a fitful light on the altar, on which an ordinary bamboo stick about two feet long lenosed among grains of unbooked rice ana out limes, the whole sprinkled with rod powder. A curtain was drawn across the door, and the men entered one at a time. As each one appeared the Brahitn seized his hands and raised them to his forehead, and then allowed him to pass on and join his fellows. Coming to Rama he went through the same pantomine, but, instead of allowing him to pass on, bade him stand aside. When the last man had gone through the ordeal, the Brahmin turned to Rama and eaid auietly: “ Tell the Sahib how you stol* tne money.” To my utter amazement (continue* the writer) Rama fell on his knees, confessed that be was tho thier, and offered to show where he had hidden the balance of the money. He had succeeded! in opening tho mail bag without *eriously disturbing the seals; the Postmaster had qQt really examined them, and so their having been manipulated had escaped notice. Needless to eay, the Brahmin was rowarded, and poor Rama was sent to repent at leisure in the district jail. Now the natural question is: “How was it done?” Very simply.. Tho temple, the lonely glen, the uncanny hour, the incantations, all were* merely accessaries to appeal to the> superstitions of the ignorant peasants. The “msgic wand” was thickly smeared! with strongly scented sandalwood oil. Rama’s guilty conscience prevented him from touching it, as he firmly believed the wand would stick to his hands, and his, of course, was the only hand that did not smell of the oil.

The Persian Shah’s Hihgway-

The Shah’s highway, considered as an agreeable promenade, or merely as a necessary avenue of approach to * great capital, cannot be considered as a shining success. Straight away in front of us as far as the eye can reach, it stretohea over a level plain, and up a slight rise, bounded on ono side by the arrowstraight line of iron telegraph poles. The skv is slightly overcast; a fierce wind blows in our faces, bringing dense clouds of dust, which rise at times to a great height in the distance, often taking the form of waterspouts or of towering columns of smoke; once enveloped in one of these travelling duststorms, there' 1 is nothing to do but hold our heads', down, ana with our eyes tlghty shut ride through it, emerging on the othes side white-bearded and powdered like millers. Sometimes we try to aveidl these encounters by riding over too rough and broken ground on one side. There are many wrecks by the way of what were once stout ships of the desert, as well as the last remnants of horses, mules and donkeys, lying where they gave up the struggle for life. The only birds in this drear landscape are th» ravens, which hunt in couples, and fly up from the road croaking hoarsely as we approach. There is not even a hard bank of earth or a stone large enough to sit upon when it is time for lunch, andi one can only squat ignominously in the dust.—[Harpers Magazine.

The Decorative Rubber Plant.

The rubber plant that has become so common a piece of domestic decoration, is not the plant that yields the robber of commerce. That is derived principally from two varieties of rubber tree that frow in Brazil and attain a large siae. 'be rubber plant of our American parlors and greenhouses, with its long, glossy leaves, would not pay for tapping. It is a species of fig, and India is it* habitat. A gum can be obtained from nearly every plant that excudes a milky sap, even from the common milkweed, and the number of rubber yielding plants is estimated at about 500.—[New York

Cuts Off the Crusts.

On Us buffet cars last year the Pullman Company served four million fire hundred thousand meals. All things considered, these meals are thoroughly latisfactory, but we deeply regret that Mr. Pullman in the interview from which, wa take these facts did not explain why he has the crusts cut off the bread he serves. This is done by regulation on all or nearly all Pullman"dining cars. It cannot be for economy. It is not good for digestion. It ought to be stopped, or at least a crust option offered eack passenger.—[Philadelphia Press.